In the following review of To Ireland, I, Wills commends Muldoon's idiosyncratic insight into Irish literary and cultural history, but finds shortcomings in his tendency toward overly esoteric and whimsical interpretations.

Some poets who turn their hand to criticism adopt a sober academic guise, as if to atone for their verbal transgressions. Paul Muldoon is not one of them. In his most recent lecture as Oxford Professor of Poetry, Muldoon entertained his audience with a string of far-fetched contentions. Did you know, for example, that Robert Frost's poem “The Mountain” alludes cryptically to the Irish philosopher Berkeley, in its references to “bark” and “lee”? No matter that neither word actually appears in the poem, let alone appearing together. After all, there is shelter “from a wind” and there are “trees with trunks”—not to mention the clincher...